The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-08-21
DANGEROUS CALLING.
Reason why so Many Massachusetts wo-
mon are WIdowa.

mon arc widows.
The great number of recent railroad
disasters in New England and the facts
that have been made public by the dis
cussion of the recently enacted en-
ployers' liability law in Massachusetts,.
throw new Light on the preponderance
Of women in this State An investiga-
ton of all the facts bearing on this
social phenomenon reveals tragedy
which may be told in statistics Who
are these surplus women? Unmarried
womenP So ithas been supposed-erro
| ncously.
1t has been assumed that they were
the unmarried-the maidens and spin
tiers ''left'' in the struggle for matri-
monial prizes, and therefore presuma-
bly, not the .'fittest." But an investi-
CATION made shows that they are
neither young maidens nor spinsters,
but they were, not long ago, the
''fittest," the brightest of their sex,
who early won the love and support of
brave young fellows, and are now
widows 1t takes very few figures to
tell this fact in the tragedy. The total
excess of females in the State is 76, 1873.
and of this number 5000, or more
than IS per cent, are widows, the total
number of widowed men in the State
being 80. l54. and of widowed women
97,15S.
1t is not among women Of advanced
years, or even among those in middle
life, that the great excess is found.
More than half are not yet 40, and
29,004 are of ages between 20 and 80.
They but tasted of the happiness of
wifehood and motherhood when they
were made ''supernuous. A great
number of these women are the widows
of the men whose dreadful deaths by
thousand forms of mutilation we read
of in our newspapers night and morn
ing-the young wage earners killed in
the dangerous occupations
The perls of the fisheries are ia
miliar tale. Since our earliest colonial
days the coast population has derived
its support mainly from the sea, and if
the Down East minister's salary is no
longer paid in cod and mackerol by
weight or count it is none the less paid
with cod and mackerel in another way.
The fisherman sees but little of his
home His quest takes him $50 to
1000 or more miles from Gloucester.
He enters the little dory, and casting
off from the vessel exposes himself to
the full force of the Atlantic. With
the best of luck his sufferings are Sc
we're. and it is often that the worst of
luck overtakes him. Lost in the fog
he dies in the agonies of starvation and
thirst and Last seen on the Gorges"
is the only word that gets back to the
desolate home at Gloucester From
ninety to 100 lives a year are lost from
vessels hailing from that single port of
Gloucester. Last year the number was
| lis.
Not so concentrated in one locality
and occupation. but enormously greater
in the aggregate, is the loss of life in
the inland industries. The network OF
railroads that covers the State is the
great minotaur. The average number
of fatal accidents to railroad employees
during the ten years, 1875 to 1885. was
A. / per year. The average number of
accidents not fatal was 1870, and large
proportion of these, it should be re-
membered, result ultimately in pre-
| mature death. Boston Cor Chicago
To,,,.,,oJ